In the realm of primetime television talent-search shows, the quest for fame and fortune is usually the focus. In the case of Gospel Dream winner Melinda Watts, her vision for competing was more far-reaching: She never wanted it to be about her, but about inspiring others through her music and ministry.

At the core of Watts’ debut album, People Get Ready, is a clarion call to live life more abundantly in the here and now, while looking forward to a better life.

Influenced by power vocalists such as Shirley Caesar, Yolanda Adams, Natalie Grant and Reba McEntire, Watts infuses her music with a cross-platform appeal that normally takes up-and-coming artists several albums to perfect. “My parents weren’t musical people but they really exposed me to different types of music,” she says. “I had a lot of fear about how people would respond to the music. The main thing was, I wanted God to be pleased. I wanted people to walk away from the songs being uplifted.”

Mature beyond her years, Watts initially didn’t intend to audition for the 2008 season of Gospel Dream. It took some convincing from her sister Kisha for the singer to take a leap of faith.

“There was always this small voice inside of me telling me that if I wanted to inspire kids to follow their dreams, I needed to follow my own dreams,” says Watts, who at the time was pregnant with her daughter Lyric, having every intention to put her life on hold to focus on motherhood.

But since she was crowned the champ of Gospel Dream, the former English teacher has used her new platform in gospel entertainment to advance her philanthropic efforts, especially the work of her own nonprofit, The About Face Network, and Heaven’s House for Girls, an organization that nurtures young women to fulfill their potential in society and become everything they believe God wants them to be.

In addition, Watts oversees Project Sunday, an afterschool program she started while working as a teacher in California. Through daily affirmation and a curricular component, the program was eventually adopted by the state of California to empower at-risk girls from impoverished areas to break out of the cycles and patterns that keep them from getting ahead in life.

“People ask me all the time if I’d choose working with kids over music or vice versa,” Watts says. “I honestly can’t answer that question. I think both are really a gift. They come from the same well. It’s not like I’m a singer trying to teach on the side, or a teacher trying to sing on the side. This is really who I am as an artist.”